1. Utah Jazz
Key Additions: Derrick Favors, Udoka Azubuike (R)
Key Losses: Tony Bradley, Ed Davis, Rayjon Tucker
The Northwest Division race will be very tight at the top with Portland and Denver, but I think when all teams are healthy Utah the best roster in the division. The Jazz has a budding All-NBA star in Donovan Mitchell, along with the best defensive player on the planet in Rudy Gobert.
Utah is coming off a season where they gave up defense with Derrick Favors for more offense with Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic. The offense morphed into an elite top-3 offensive machine, while their once-elite defense slipped back down to league average.
So what did the Jazz do this season? They brought back Derrick Favors. The Favors signing isn’t going to make any national headlines, but it gives Utah something that they didn’t have last year, which was more length, defense, and quality backup center minutes. Utah with Rudy Gobert on the floor outscored teams in bunches (+6 points per 100 possessions); However, in those 12 -15 minutes without Gobert on the floor opponents killed the Jazz (-5 points per 100 possessions).
Plugging Favors, someone who has always been a plus-minus darling his entire career, with those minutes will now give the Jazz 48 minutes of elite rim protection on defense and elite roll-men on offense.
Utah has a roster with two All-Stars (Mitchell and Gobert), two other borderline All-Stars (Conley and Bogdanovic), a deep 9-to-10-man rotation, and the best 3-point shooting team from last year without much change.
Utah will only go as far as Mitchell and Gobert take them but keep an eye on Mike Conley. He was catching fire near the end of the season and seems to be getting more comfortable in Quin Snyder’s offense. If he can get back to his Memphis days with the offensive efficiency and shooting, the rest of the West better watch out.
Projected Record: 47-25